|
ECVET TC NET final conference in Vienna |
 |
 |
Final conference - Labour Mobility & ECVET in the Tourism Industry
Thursday, October 13th 2011 – 10:00–15:00h Hotel Park Royal, Vienna, Austria (AT)
The attendance requires an e-mail registration:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Deadline for Registration: Friday, 30th of September 2011
ECVET TC NET 6th meeting in Vienna
Austria 12.10.2011 – 15.10.2011
|
|
|
Project reason |
|
|
Why does the consortium wish to undertake this project?
The sector of tourism and catering is without no doubt europeanwide one of the strongest driving forces for the economic development and this applies for older and new as well as future member states of the European Community.
“Tourism is one of the most important sectors of the European economy; GDP generated by tourism represents already 5 % in the core industry with another 7 % in the related economy. With two million enterprises in Europe, the tourism sector is responsible for seven million jobs in the core industry (or 5 % of the total workforce) and 20 million jobs in total with the related economy (or an additional 8 % workforce). This means that the tourism sector is also capable of creating 100000 new jobs per year”.
The European industry is besides other trends facing more and more the demand for high quality tourism which closely related to high quality employees with excellent competencies and skills. Furthermore if the real potential of the tourism and catering sector related to the employment possibilities should be exploited to full extension mobility of workers is one of the core issues.
There is nearly no other economic sector where flexibility and mobility of workforce has such an importance. At this stage mobility is still heavily hindered by the lack of transparent and recognisable qualifications and competences and there is Europe wide a huge need for models to allow mutual recognition of competences and skills.
Introduction
Already in June 2001 the Final Report Working Group B, Improving Training in order to upgrade skills in the tourism industry came to the conclusion that “Transparency and Validation of Qualifications/Mobility/Career-paths must be a priority subject in the tourism sector in Europe”, together with the developed European Credit Transfer System for Vocational Education and Training we now have the possibility to establish a model and system to allow mutual recognition of competences.
The ECVET based model would for the first time provide a system for transparency of learning outcomes together with an approach for the concrete implementation in the sector, however the tourism sector and industry has some further peculiarities which must be taken into account: vocational education and training in the tourism sector is like in no other sector to a large extent also provided by tourism companies, hotels, spas, clubs etc. When developing a ECVET based model for recognition and transparency of competences and learning outcomes the development must reflect this in a proper way.
Therefore ECVET TC NET will be a multistakeholder ECVET network for tourism and catering involving high class tourism schools, vocational training centres, universities, hotels, cruise ship companies, holiday clubs, spas and other relevant institutions to achieve a well thought and well accepted result.
The Leonardo da Vinci network ECVET TC-NET is a network project for the development and elaboration of the ECVET system for the tourism and catering industry in Europe. Tourism and catering is one of the most important economic branches in Europe and provides for more than 7 million jobs in Europe, however especially this sector is relying very much on flexibility and mobility of work force. This is the main reason for the development of the ECVET model as a basis for mutual recognition and transparency of competences and learning outcomes.
In a network consortium which reflects the tourism and catering sector characteristics (where large parts of the training programms are implemented as corporate training in hotels, tourist centres, spas, cruise ships, etc.) which included tourism schools, VET providers, colleges, university colleges, hotels, cruise ship companies, labour force providers and associations the main activites planned are the implementation of a baseline survey of competences and learning outcomes needed in the tourism and catering sector. On this basis a competence grid for all relevant competences will be developed which forms the cornerstone of the ECVET model elaborated.
The model will be presented in a detailed handbook for implementation together with supporting documents like a Memorandum for Mutual Trust and a draft for a ECVET certificate. All activities are embedded in a comprehensive quality management strategy and surrounded by a sustainable strategy for dissemination and exploitation. The network as such follows an enlargement strategy throughout the whole funding period and will be developing a detailed and feasible sustainability strategy for the time after the funding period.
The main impact aims refer to the training providers and schools in the tourism and catering sector, companies and work force providers which receive a model for mutual recognition and accreditation for vocational training and learning outcomes.
Aims and objectives
To approach the problem or demand situation ECVET TC NET will as its main aim to develop an ECVET based model for mutual recognition and transparency of learning outcomes and competences in the tourism and catering sector in Europe.
To achieve this overarching project aim ECVET TC NET will envisage the following detail aims:
- European survey “Competences and skills in the tourism and catering sector in Europe”: The aim of the survey is to get a detailed perspectives of the different competences and job profiles needed in the tourism and catering sector in Europe as a basis for the development of the ECVET model
- Development of a competence description grid: The competence description grid should provide a description basis for all deducted competences in the tourism and catering sector
- Elaboration of the ECVET model for the tourism and catering sector in Europe: out of a multistakeholder perspective with a strong focus on the companies and service providers included in the partnership the ECVET model for the sector will be developed and documented in a comprehensive way
- Development of guidelines how to work with ECVET in the tourism and catering sector in practice: Additionally to the model description there will be some concrete guidelines and a step by step approach how to work with ECVET in practice, this also refers to the fact that large parts of vocational training in the tourism and catering sector is taking place within companies and service providers and these organisations are not classical training organisations and therefore have not enough experiences with credit transfer systems.
- Development of guidelines how to develop ECVET compliant training programmes: For the training organisations in the tourism and catering field it is important also to have proper guidelines on how to develop ECVET compliant training programmes in the future.
- Test implementation of the ECVET model: Training organisations and companies involved in the ECVET TC NET will be also testing the developed approaches and instruments to receive feedback on practical implementation and feasibility for the sector needs
- Policy development: the ECVET TC NET will also develop further the VET policy for the tourism and catering sector out of a high quality multistakeholder perspective by developing a policy recommendation paper for vocational education and training in the tourism and catering industry in Europe
All these aims are on one hand embedded in a multistakeholder approach ensuring the highest possible relevance for all stakeholders involved in the sector and on the other hand the network as such is following an elaborated network development strategy allowing for a sustainable network development as reference network for ECVET in the tourism and catering sector and – more generally spoken – for VET in the tourism and catering sector in Europe.
|
|
|
|
